


you pierce my soul

by politicalmamaduck



Category: Persuasion - Jane Austen, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Jane Austen Fusion, Alternate Universe - Regency, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Background Relationships, Ben is Anne Elliot, F/M, Rey is Captain Wentworth, persuasion au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-09-25 18:30:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17126534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/politicalmamaduck/pseuds/politicalmamaduck
Summary: It was not common knowledge, and in fact was held only in the closest confidence by his most intimate associates, that Ben Organa-Solo’s heart had been captured by a Royal Navy captain as thoroughly as she captured and conveyed enemy vessels. However, despite his age and desire to be wed, he allowed himself to be persuaded against the match, for his dearly beloved mother was uncertain as to the young lady’s youth and her son’s proclivities for shouting matches and dueling.





	you pierce my soul

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OfPillar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OfPillar/gifts).



> Written for pillar_of_salt for the 2019 Reylo Fanfiction Anthology Gift Exchange: After the Blazing Fire Dies! I was absolutely thrilled to write a Persuasion AU, and I hope you like my twist on it. Some lines are taken directly from the novel. I tried to retain as much of the original plot and Austen’s style, particularly the free indirect discourse, as possible, while adapting it to fit a different cast of characters and modern sensibilities. I hope you will like your gift!

It sometimes happens that a man is handsomer at twenty-nine than he was ten years before; and, generally speaking, if there has been neither ill health nor anxiety, it is a time of life at which scarcely any charm is lost. It was so with Ben Organa-Solo, still the same handsome Master Organa-Solo that he had begun to be thirteen years ago, when he first started under his uncle’s tutelage. The son of a great Royal Navy captain and one of the wealthiest heiresses in all the Isles, Ben Organa-Solo was widely considered one of the most eligible bachelors in Somerset despite his infamous temper.

It was not common knowledge, and in fact was held only in the closest confidence by his most intimate associates, that Ben Organa-Solo’s heart had been captured by a Royal Navy captain as thoroughly as she captured and conveyed enemy vessels. However, despite his age and desire to be wed, he allowed himself to be persuaded against the match, for his dearly beloved mother was uncertain as to the young lady’s youth and her son’s proclivities for shouting matches and dueling. The Duchess Leia Organa loved her son and his would-be betrothed with all her heart, but she did not want to see another proposed match end in heartbreak and tragedy as so many were wont to do in uncertain times. The war had lingered despite many stunning successes by the Royal Navy, as had Ben Organa-Solo’s depth of feeling for Captain Rey Johnson, hero of the Western Wastes and newly-made wealthy heiress.

Captain Johnson had no fortune. She had been lucky in her profession, and she was confident that she should soon be rich; full of life and ardor, she knew that she should soon have a ship, and soon be on a station that would lead to everything she wanted. Despite her life’s hardships and her late parents’ abandonment, she had always been lucky; she knew she should be so still. Such confidence, powerful in its own warmth, and bewitching in the wit which often expressed it, must have been enough for Ben Organa-Solo.

After her latest daring escapade upon the high seas, Rey had returned to their sceptered isle and made acquaintance with Duchess Organa’s long lost brother, former Royal Navy Commander Luke Skywalker. She had saved and invested her twenty-five thousand pounds in prize money from captured vessels well and hastened to put her winnings to good employ. She persuaded the old master to teach her what he knew about the high seas and encouraged him to travel with her to see his sister for the holidays.

The Organa-Solos would winter in Bath and enjoy the waters, far from their ancestral home and lands to the North. Though a proud and ancient family dating back to even the venerable Pipe Rolls of King Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, with the wars and age the family estate had fallen into financial disrepair, and the Duchess Organa longed for a more temperate, hospitable clime. Her son, however, believed that they should let the past die, selling the estate if they had to, but Duchess Organa would not hear of such a thing. She had come into her biological mother’s inheritance late in her life; her biological father had destroyed her adoptive parents’ home and lands in a terrible fire.

Though the wars with Napoleon and America had ended, the news from the Continent was hardly promising. The waters would do well for the Organa-Solos’ finances and their constitutions, it was believed.

And so to Bath they journeyed, as did Captain Johnson and old Master Skywalker. A happy coincidence, or a twist of fate, brought the estranged couple together once more, via their mutual acquaintance Captain Poe Dameron, lately of the famed vessel _Black One_. Captain Dameron was a childhood friend of Ben Organa-Solo’s; their parents had been well acquainted during the previous war, and he was a much vaunted colleague of Rey Johnson’s.

Their friendly, fashionable circle in Bath included the Ladies Rose and Paige Tico of Hays Manor, sisters whose society all very much enjoyed, and Captain Finn Stormbreaker, another Royal Navy sailor and recently made gentleman paying court to Lady Rose. The Ladies Kaydel Ko Connix and Jessika Pava often joined them as well, as did many of Commander Skywalker, Duchess Organa, and Captain Solo’s friends and colleagues.

Soon, the Organa-Solo’s charming rented home in Bath was filled with callers and well-wishers, especially the boisterous Captain Dameron, who much admired the great lady.

The lively young people brought a smile to Duchess Organa’s face, even if she eyed the impetuous Captain Dameron warily and urged him to conduct his affairs with more prudence. The young people often held passionate salon discussions regarding the recently ended wars, and the consequence of intervention upon the Continent, as well as the American democratic experiment. Ben Organa-Solo was quick to take the Americans’ position, espousing his emphatic belief in moving on from the past, even violently if need be, and even went so far as to defend the revolution in France in 1789.

The Lady Rose Tico, however, countered Ben’s position with her own sentiments and depth of feeling. “It’s not about fighting what we hate,” she began, taking Captain Finn’s hand. “It’s about saving what we love.”

At this, Rey smiled, and Ben found himself unable to continue the debate, accepting his defeat with grace and calling for more tea and brandy. It was apparent to him that Rey had not forgiven him for his feebleness of character in breaking their engagement those years before, although she sat gracefully with a cup of tea by his mother’s side and comported herself with much grace and equanimity. She and Ben, however, avoided one another and refrained from engaging each other in conversation, save what was required by their respective social positions and the conventions of politeness.

When the company gathered together at table for dinner, the conversation often turned to the high seas and the noble captains’ experiences. Captain Solo was held in much high regard by the younger generation, who were eager to hear his tales of the Kessel Run and escapades with Barbary pirates.

When the meal was finished and the merry company paired off for dancing, Rey and Kaydel stood observing. Though she would say nothing to her friends, Rey was heartily disappointed by Ben’s cold politeness to her. Their conversation turned to love and marriage, as it so often did when looking upon the happiness evident in Finn and Rose’s relationship. This evening, though, Kaydel stood in admiration of Duchess Organa and Captain Solo. 

"If I loved a man, as she loves Captain Solo, I would be always with him, nothing should ever separate us, and I would rather be overturned by him, than driven safely by anybody else," Kaydel stated, with her chin up and her gaze firm.

Rey nodded her agreement, smiling at the happy couple she intended to be her parents-in-law, never resigning that hope. Joining them by the window, Captain Dameron remembered the constancy of his late parents’ love. “Men are wont to remember the women they have loved, even after the lady in question has moved on with her affection.”

“That may be so,” Kaydel replied. "I rather believe we ladies will agree to disagree, respectfully of course." She smiled kindly at Poe and Rey.

“I claim the privilege of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.” Rey could not immediately have uttered another sentence; her heart was too full, her breath too much oppressed. Listening in the next room, Ben Organa-Solo allowed himself a small smile. Indeed, Rey had loved longest and waited years enough for her lost parents; she need not worry that hope was gone in his regard.

At the end of their discussion, Captain Dameron proposed a visit to his colleague Lieutenant Bastian, who resided not twenty miles from Bath in Lyme by the seaside. His description of the fine country about Lyme was so feelingly attended to by the party, that an earnest desire to see Lyme themselves, and a project for going thither was the consequence.

The young people were all wild to see Lyme; the proposition was accepted and the expedition planned with alacrity. The carriages would be called to set out upon the morrow.

At noon the next day, the adventure began when the carriages set off. Though being winter, the weather was by no means bad. Upon arrival in Lyme a few hours later, after securing accommodations and ordering dinner at one of the inns, the next thing to be done was unquestionably to walk directly down to the sea. Lyme’s main thoroughfare went almost straight into the water, with the Cobb, a border to the harbor and fine place to walk along the sea, not too far off.

The lively couples proceeded to meander along the Cobb, troubled only by strong winds on the high part. Going down the steps to the lower path, all were content to tread gently and take in the sights and sounds of the seaside, save Captain Dameron, who urged Lady Paige to jump into his arms from the above. He assured her that she would be quite safe, but when he put out his hands, she was too quick by half a second, and she fell upon the pavement of the Lower Cobb. Everyone immediately rushed to her side, but she was lifted from her fall unconscious. There was no wound, no blood, no visible bruise, but her eyes were closed, she breathed not, and her face was like death.

Poe’s face was ashen and grave, and Rey urged Lady Jessika to support him. “Go to him, go to him,” she cried, “for heaven’s sake go to him. I can support her myself. Leave me, and go to him. Rub her hands, rub her temples; here are salts, take them, take them.”

Jessika and Finn obeyed, calming Poe down, while Ben set off to find the local apothecary.

“A medic, if you please, upon the promontory,” Ben said, calmly and quickly to any of the sailors and workers who might pass by, not staying for a greeting or pleasantries, so intent was he upon his mission. 

“Saving what we love,” Finn whispered to his crying lady love, who pressed her sister’s hand as she was carried off towards the inn.

The medic was with them almost before it had seemed possible. They were sick with horror while he examined; but he was not hopeless. Paige’s head had a severe contusion, but the medic had seen recovery from greater injuries. He spoke cheerfully, and was by no means hopeless.

The party soon divided, to send some back to Bath to send word; Paige’s removal from Lyme at the moment was impossible.

Ben and Rey were urged to stay. “If Ben will stay, there is no one so proper, so capable, and Rey will be calm and conscientious in attendance on her,” said Kaydel. Finn would escort Rose back to Bath; they could ride quickly, and seeing her sister in such a state would do her no good. She would inform their parents as quickly as possible.

“You will stay, I am sure; you will stay and nurse her,” cried Ben, turning to Rey and speaking with a glow, and yet a gentleness, which seemed almost restoring the past. He blushed deeply, realizing how his tone and eyes had betrayed him, and recollected himself, turning away.

Rey expressed herself most willing and ready to remain. “A bed on the floor in her room will be sufficient for me,” she declared.

The early account that Ben and Rey reported from Lyme the next morning was that Paige was much the same; no symptoms worse than before had appeared.

This left the formerly estranged lovers opportune time for reflection, and conversation. Every moment rather brought fresh agitation; it was an overpowering happiness. While drafting a letter to a colleague currently upon the high seas, Ben came upon Rey in the drawing room, and caused her to pause her writing.

“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever.” He had been forced into prudence in his youth, he learned romance as he grew older -- the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.

He persisted in having loved none but her. She had never been supplanted.

He took her hand, and she bestowed upon him the most perfect smile he could ever countenance. Rey was tenderness itself, and she had the full worth of it in Ben’s affection.

“I must endeavor to subdue my mind to my fortune; I must learn to brook being happier than I deserve,” she replied.

Ben and Rey announced their engagement upon returning to Bath with a weak, but awakened and healing Lady Paige Tico. The news was greeted with great joy by all, and General Organa officially welcomed Rey into the family.

Paige met a full recovery, her devoted sister and soon-to-be brother in law scarcely away from her side. The happy couples had much to celebrate in the next few years. Ben and Rey retired to the Organa-Solo lands in the North; the dread of a future war was all that could dim her sunshine. Ben gloried in being a sailor’s husband, and was content to let his wife do her duty to her country when she was called upon.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, a huge thank you to my beta boo Desiree and the RFFA mod coven, especially Briar/thewayofthetrashcompactor for her beta help and support. Please do leave me a comment letting me know what you think, and come talk to me on Tumblr as well!


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